BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



Shuttleworth. 

 Argent three shuttles 

 sable 'with yarn pendent 



Catterall of Little Mitton, esq.," and died in I 5 1 5 



possessed of this estate, which he held of the Abbot of 



Whalley for Ss. \d. yearly, with lands in Aighton 



and Simondston and the 



advowson of a chantry in 



Blackburn Church. His heir 



was Robert Shuttleworth, his 



grandson, aged five years, the 



son of Henry, his deceased 



son." 



Robert Shuttleworth of 

 Hacking, gent., settled his 

 manor of Hacking and other 

 estates upon trustees in 

 1542-3, and died shortly 

 after, leaving issue by his wife 

 Isabel daughter of John 

 Hoghton of Pendleton a son 

 Robert, who married Jane fifth daughter of Evan 

 Browne of Ribbleton and co-heir of her only 

 brother Richard." Their son Richard died young, 

 and their daughter Anne, sole heir of her father, 

 married Thomas Walmsley, afterwards of Dunken- 

 halgh, kt.,'* by which union the estate of Hacking 

 has descended, like the manor of Billington, through 

 the Walmsley and Petre families, to Mr. G. E. A. H. 

 Petre, the present owner. 



HACKING HALL stands in a low and picturesque 

 situation facing north on the left bank of the Calder 

 close to its junction with the Ribble and is a solidly 

 built early I yth-century house of three stories, with 

 gables, mullioned windows and stone slated roofs. 

 The walls are constructed of squared sandstone blocks 

 in regular courses with quoins of gritstone and are 

 entirely unrelieved by any string-course or other 

 ornament, the absence of which increases the apparent 

 height and size of the building. The plan follows to 

 some extent that of the earlier manor-houses with 

 central hall and projecting ends, but the inner angles 

 of the middle portion, which measures 37 ft. between 

 the end wings, are occupied by a projecting bay at 

 the east end of the hall and by a porch opposite, both 

 going up the full height of the building and termi- 

 nating in small gables, thus giving a series of recesses 

 to the front elevation which break the monotony of 

 its rather severe design, and, with the wide end gables 

 and a smaller one in the centre, produce a very 

 picturesque sky-line. These five gables of unequal 

 size are now quite plain, but the wide end ones appear 

 originally to have had cone-shaped ornaments at the 

 knees, the bases of which yet remain. The house, 

 which has a frontage of 80 ft., was built by Sir T. 

 Walmsley " and on the chimney shaft at the east 

 end is the date 1607 together with the initials T. L., 

 which are said to be those of Thomas Livesey, father 

 of Sir Thomas Walmsley's mother. The front 

 windows are all long and low without transoms but 



with hood moulds, and there are similar smaller 

 windows at the back. At the west end is a large 

 projecting kitchen chimney, the opening inside 

 measuring 12 ft. 6 in. in width, and there is a smaller 

 one at the east end. The back elevation has four 

 gables, and there is one at each end breaking into the 

 chimneys, the house possessing in all no less than 

 eleven stone gables. A modern wing 75 ft. in length 

 containing the farm buildings runs southwards from 

 the west end at the back. 



The porch is open, with a wood seat on each side, 

 and the door is the original oak one studded with 

 iron nails. There is another similar door at the 

 back. The position of the passage-way or screens 

 at the west end of the hall is retained, though a wall 

 has taken the place of the screen. The hall, which 

 has a diagonally flagged floor, was originally 29 ft. by 

 18 ft., but the east end containing the bay window 

 has been partitioned off. The fireplace, which is 

 I o ft. wide and has a four-centred arch 5 ft. high, is 

 now built up and the chimney, which on the exterior 

 added greatly to the picturesqueness of the elevation, 

 is broken at the top. On the west side of the 

 passage is the old kitchen, now a parlour, i 8 ft. square, 

 with its great four-centre arched fireplace opening 

 6 ft. high, within which a small modern grate has 

 been inserted. The staircase is at the east end of 

 the house and is of oak, twisting round a central 

 newel but without wall balustrade or any architectural 

 detail. It leads to the top of the house, but the 

 rooms are generally without interest, having been 

 stripped of their oak wainscot many years ago. 

 ' The principal room on the first floor in the east 

 wing was formerly panelled in richly carved oak, one 

 compartment of which bore the arms of Judge 

 Walmsley the builder.' °° The room on the top 

 floor extends the full length of the house and 

 measures 77 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft., being lit on the north 

 side by a series of bays in the gables and from each 

 end. It forms a kind of long gallery in the roof, the 

 principals of which are now exposed, and the studding 

 and plaster of the walls has long disappeared. 



In front of the house, which is now used as a farm, 

 is a small garden inclosed by a low stone wall with 

 good moulded coping. 



5i?v^Z»Z)riZ.— BradehuU, Bradhul, xiii-xv cent. 



The mesne manor of Braddyll lies to the west of 

 Hacking, in the north-western corner of the town- 

 ship, intermixed with the ancient freehold of Brock- 

 hall. The site of the manor place, now occupied by a 

 farm-house, stands close to the Dinckley Brook, which 

 forms the division from the adjoining township of 

 that name, where lay part of the estate which passed 

 with the mesne manor. 



Roger de Bradhull died before 1 2 1 1 seised of 

 lands here which descended to Henry his son living 

 in 1246." He is assumed to have been the father 



« Towneley MS. RR, fol. 287-8. 



^^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, 69. 

 Catherine widow of Henry Shuttleworth 

 had married secondly John Hoghton of 

 Pendleton, esq.; Add. MS. 32104, no. 537. 



*? Robert Shuttleworth, who died soon 

 after 1 542, had a brother Ralph, who 

 married Jane third daughter of Sir John 

 Towneley, let., and widow of Thomas 

 Shireburne of Stonyhurst, esq. Their son 

 Charles Shuttleworth had a suit with 

 Robert Morley, esq., in 1 571-2 ; in the 



pleadings a pedigree of the Shuttleworth 

 family for seven generations is given ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 232, m. 7. In 

 1573 he passed estates in Billington, 

 Aighton and Simonstone by fine to trustees 

 probably as his cousin's executor ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 34, m. 148. The 

 following year Thomas Walmsley, gent., 

 and Anne his wife passed the same estates 

 to other trustees ; ibid. bdle. 35, m. 169. 

 sswhitaker, Whalley (ed. 1876), ii, 

 387. Most of the particulars of the 



329 



dcieent of the Shuttleworths of Hacking 

 are derived from Towneley MS. RR 

 (Add. MS. 32108), fol. 286 et seq. 



" Abram, Hist, of Blackburn, 437. 



*» Ibid. The carved oak from the 

 walls was taken to Dunkenhalgh ' some 

 years 'before 1875, in which year Mr. 

 Abram wrote his description. 



"Lanes. Assize R. 404, m. I4d. ; 

 Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xlvii, 55. 

 Henry attests many local charters 

 c. 1250. 



42 



